During the past few weeks, in the gaming industry, there has been talk about the need for change. That the medium is evolving, and we need better graphics cards. Better computers. This has come especially due to the exaggerated minimum and recommended requirements of Alan Wake II, but it has been debated in general regarding video games. However, according to a periodic survey by Valve, people have very different opinions on this matter.
Valve conducts a monthly survey where they ask a segment of their users about the components of their computers. This way, it’s possible to determine the composition of the most common computer among people who play on PC. This has revealed several things, such as the most common graphics configuration still being playing at 1080p, also known as Full-HD.
With 16GB of RAM, the GeForce RTX 3060 as the graphics card, and the most common CPU running at around 2.6GHz, what we know is that the audience isn’t interested in having cutting-edge computers. With the GTX 1080 being the second most popular graphics card, it’s clear that gamers no longer prioritize sheer power. And there are reasons for this.
The reason graphics cards and processors are not being upgraded as rapidly as before is mainly due to the exorbitant prices of the latest generation hardware and the marginal improvements they offer. This is especially true thanks to technologies like DLSS 3, which allow games to be played with quality equivalent to those prohibitively expensive graphics cards.
That’s why, even though the gaming industry believes we should upgrade our computers, players have a different opinion. This is demonstrated by Steam’s metrics, which make something clear: GTX 1080 as minimum requirements and GeForce RTX 3060 as recommended requirements will continue to be the standard at least until 2024.
